[Elecraft] 43 Ft Vertical and Elecraft Tuners

[Jim Brown]

Thanks Mike.  Your observations about radiation angle and performance 
are in good agreement with my modeling. Yes, the secret sauce is that 43 
ft is 5/8 on 20M.

73, Jim K9YC

On 9/3/2013 11:17 AM, mikefurrey at att.net wrote:
> Hi Jim,
>
> I use exactly that here in Tampa. My antenna is a stealth 43' of green 
> 18 gauge wire up a tree and 43' of the same horizontal hidden in the 
> bushes. I am in an apartment. The feed point is about 10' above 
> ground. I feed it with open wire line from a 4:1 balun on the back of 
> my K3 with the internal tuner. I am guessing the feed line is about 
> 25'. It matches on 80-6 ... sometimes ... excessive rain causes a 
> "HIGH CURRENT" on the radio and I just back down the power until it 
> goes off.
>
> I did tinker with different lengths of coax between the balun and the 
> radio ... 10 feet of RG58 and the best SWR on 20 was 2:1 and 6 meters 
> would have nothing to do with it. I have not experimented with the 
> length of the open wire line ... the set up seems to work fine as I 
> currently have it.
>
> 43' is a popular height because it is 5/8 on 20 and can provide "3db" 
> gain. For me the antenna works very well on 40, 30, 20 and 17. It is 
> very poor on 80 and the angle of radiation is a bit high on  15-10. I 
> have worked locals on 6 (use a 6 m delta loop in attic the rest of the 
> time). On 160 the tuner would have nothing to do with it. BUT on 160 
> during the Stew Perry I did add a base loading coil and hid 1/4 radial 
> in the bushes and worked up and down the East coast plus VEs and 
> Carribian.
>
> My current goal is DXCC on RTTY and only confirmed on LOTW. With this 
> set-up and I am up to 65 countries with only 100 watts.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> 73, Mike WA5POK/4 Tampa